Peer Relations and Adjustment Lab

Meet Our Lab Members!

Kathleen Duncan MSc., MA is a third-year graduate student in the child emphasis track of the Clinical Psychology Ph.D. program at the University of Maine. She enrolled in graduate studies at the University of Maine in 2023 and is a research investigator within Dr. Cynthia Erdley’s Peer Relations and Adjustment Lab. She is currently the Principle Investigator on the ongoing studies for her projects investigating the Social Network Measurement Development, Utility, and Validity. Her research focuses on more precisely measuring and understanding the health impacts of the quantity and diversity of social connections in young adults. Her ongoing research project seeks to develop a molar measure counting the number of social contacts college students have over the course of one week. Clinically, she is currently working at the Psychological Service Center at University of Maine, delivering evidence-based treatments to the community members in the Child and Adolescent Anxiety and Depression clinic. She is also serving as a clinician for the Southern Smoke Foundation’s Behind You program in Maine, delivering free telehealth therapy services to Food and Beverage workers.

Prior to joining the University of Maine, she assisted in carrying out a collaborative NIH R01 5-year longitudinal study on stress in families with Huntington’s Disease with Vanderbilt’s Neurology Department at Vanderbilt’s Stress and Coping Lab, under Dr. Bruce Compas. She earned her MSc. in Developmental Psychology and Clinical Practice in 2022 at University of College London in conjunction with the Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families. There, she worked within the NHS’s Whittington Health Trust at Simmons House, a Tier-4 Adolescent Psychiatric In-Patient Unit and within the Anna Freud Centre at a telehealth mental health service, The School Support Service, to deliver evidence based treatments to young people and their families. Her Master’s dissertation was on Experiences of PTSD in British Muslim Youth. She also worked at the Lau lab, now at Queen Mary University, to investigate current treatment methodologies for child laborers. She earned her B.A. at Harvard University where she also worked at the Langer Lab on Mindfulness. Her research interests center on examining leveraging social connections and community engagement to improve intervention effectiveness, accuracy, and inclusivity for young people.  

Daniella Gelman, M.A. is a fourth year doctoral candidate in Dr. Cynthia Erdley’s lab. She received her bachelor’s degree in psychology and B.S. in human development from the University at Albany – State University of New York in 2019. During her time at UAlbany, Daniella was involved in several labs, including the Child Clinical and Developmental Lab and the Center for Autism and Related Disorders (CARD).

Prior to joining the University of Maine, Daniella accepted a research assistant position at the Adolescent Partial Hospital Program (APHP) at Bradley Hospital/Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University.  Her research interests include examining the interplay between intrapersonal and interpersonal emotion regulation strategies in close friendships, and how this may serve as a predictor for mental health functioning .